No condos, no roads, lots of wild life!

“Fort Macon occupies the eastern extremity of Borden or Bogue Island, commanding Beaufort Harbor, one of the southern outlets of Pamlico Sound.  The town of Beaufort lies about two miles off, a little east of north, across the harbor.  Morehead City, at the same distance westwardly, is the terminus of the Atlantic and North Carolina railroad.  Fort Johnston, some 80 miles distant, is the nearest military post.

“The island is a mere sand-bar, lying nearly due east and west, separated from the mainland by a narrow, shallow sound (Bogue Sound).  It is 26 miles long, with an average width of less than a mile.  The sea front is a gently undulating beach, flanked by extensive sand-hills, which slope gradually to a low, flat marsh on the sound side, a narrow strip of comparatively fertile soil intervening.  The sand-hills are constantly shifting, and the marsh is mostly overflowed at high tide.  Part of the island is wooded, but the eastern extremity is treeless for several miles.  The neighboring island of Shackleford has the same general character; the adjoining mainland is low, and consists chiefly of sandy tracts, pine-barrens, and swamps.  Beaufort Harbor is shallow, and obstructed by numerous extensive shoals; the channel, navigable for vessels of ordinary tonnage, is narrow and tortuous; it sweeps around the point of the island close to the fort.  The deepest soundings, for some miles, do not exceed eight fathoms; the average in the main channel is only about half as much; the bottom is mostly sandy, often shelly, occasionally clayey and muddy in the shallowest places. Vessels reach the wharf at the railroad terminus, but only those of lightest draught go to Beaufort.  The bottom, as well as the coast line, is subject to constant change, and hydrographic surveys can be relied upon, in detail, for only comparatively short periods.

“This locality is in the midst of the auriferous region which extends from Long Island to North Florida.  There are no rocks whatever in the vicinity, except those that have been brought hither.  The beach consists of pure sand mixed with shelly detritus.

<>“It is evident, from the foregoing considerations, that the foundations of the fort are to be looked upon with some suspicion, and that in engineering operations the unstable nature of the ground should be held in view.  A useful lesson may be learned from the fact that the site of Fort Hamilton [Hampton] is now indicated by a line of breakers, nearly a mile off.  The present fort has been in imminent danger from the encroachment of the sea, the water having reached to the base of the glacis.  It was preserved by a system of stone jetties, by means of which the beach was carried some 200 yards or more away from the fort.  Although they have thus far answered their design, the fort must still be regarded as in an exposed and precarious condition.  The channel, as already stated, sweeps rapidly close in shore around the point of the island, with constant erosive action.  The trend of the land lays it open to the prevailing and the most violent winds.  The open sea beats directly upon the beach, and the sand-hills are always shifting.  As long as the fort is not defended by extensive and permanent masonry, care should be taken to disturb the surface as little as possible, since every formed or forming sand-hill is something of a natural protection.  The more grass and weeds are allowed to grow about the fort the better, as they help to bind down the sand.  Any gully that might be formed by the rain, or other cause, in the glacis, would enlarge indefinitely, and be difficult to remedy……….

“The reservation comprises about a mile of the end of the island; the limits are at present indicated by a few stakes standing here and there in the mud of the marsh, of which the whole consists, with the exception of the sandy sea-front above mentioned……….

“The insects of the locality that have any special relations with man are chiefly those affecting him injuriously.  Various species of wood-ticks abound; while indoors the bedbugs  and a species of roach  are only too common.  Crab louse  is the characteristic  representative of the parasites.  The garrison, probably, is never free from its infestation.  The prevalence of southwest winds free us in part from the mosquitoes, but these and a sand midge are often annoying pests in summer.  The waters give employment and support to a large part of the population and furnish important additions to the army ration.  A dozen or more of small or medium-sized fish may always be taken at the wharf, and fishing for these is the chief  amusement of the troops.  Of larger fish the “sheepshead,” two species of drum, and the sea trout, are abundant in season and easily secured.  Blue fish are abundant late in summer, and trolling for them furnishes the most agreeable and healthful exercise that is had here.  The most important fishing, however, in the commercial point of view, is undoubtedly that of the mullet, vast shoals of which make their appearance late in the fall.  They are only taken in the seine.  Of useless or hurtful fish may be mentioned the various species of rays, or stingers, as they are called.  The wound from the spine of the tail is tedious, painful and even dangerous.  Sharks of different species, including the hammerhead, are sufficiently large and numerous to require the exercise of some caution in bathing.  Like the rest of the Carolina coasts this locality is noted as a habitat of the somewhat celebrated devil fish, which must not, however, be confounded with any of the smaller species of rays that commonly receive the same name.  Reptiles furnish only two species of economic consequence.  These are the loggerhead turtle and the terrapin,  both of which are excellent for the table.  Of venomous reptiles I have noticed but two—the rattlesnake and copperhead:  both are common in swampy wooded places.  The island itself seems singularly destitute of frogs; though several occur in the mainland.  I have noticed four species of harmless snakes and three of harmless lizards about the fort.  One of the latter, the glass snake, is the most abundant and characteristic reptile of the island.  The alligator is a frequent inhabitant of the swamps in the vicinity.  Out of over 200 species of birds that I record from the locality, several species are of special economic importance.  With the exception of the quail, which is abundant on the mainland, though shunning the barren island, these belong, as was to have been anticipated, to the waders and swimmers.  The first named furnish chiefly in spring and fall during the migration  curlew, plover, various kinds of snipe, and sand birds and rail.  All these are abundant, and may be procured with little trouble.  In November, and during the winter, water fowl throng the harbor.  They are represented by two or three kinds of geese and a dozen or more of ducks, as mallard, teak, widgeon, red-heads, and raft ducks; but the most abundant water fowl, the fishing duck, is hardly eatable.  The various pelagic birds that enter the harbor are rather interesting in their scientific aspects than important from our present standpoint.  In a sanitary point of view there are three species of decided consequence:  the turkey buzzard, fish crow, and herring gull, which effectually remove the garbage  that is carried out of the fort.

“The list of indigenous mammals is comparatively small.  Deer occur in numbers in the vicinity, and venison is sometimes as cheap as beef.  They are said to reside on the wooded portion of the island itself as well as on the mainland.  A hare is the most abundant and characteristic mammal of the island.  The opossum is common.  Among fur-bearing animals may be mentioned the gray fox, mink, otter, and raccoon.  Our noxious species area confined to the rat and mouse, naturalized species that have permanent foothold about the fort………..

“There are no springs upon the island, and the pools, etc., are all more or less subject to the tides; all the water is brackish and most of it somewhat hard.  It may be procured anywhere by sinking a barrel or two.  I do not, however, indorse the current opinion that it is sea water filtered through the sand....”

Ranger Randy Newman found these excerpts from :”A Report on Barracks and Hospitals With Descriptions of Military Posts” written in 1870 by Dr. Elliott Coues(we think it is pronounced “cows”).  In them he describes the natural environment as he saw it in 1870